


Don't You Know You're Not Alone

by deependlittleocean



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Christmas parties at your ex's parent's place, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Idiots to friends to lovers, Jeff "Fake it till you make it" Troy, Kent "I have the emotional IQ of a Toddler" Parson, Kent Parson/Jack Zimmermann friendship, M/M, Medium Burn, not a slow burn but not a fast burn either??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-14
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 00:09:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17415197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deependlittleocean/pseuds/deependlittleocean
Summary: Kent really isn’t surprised when it goes to shit really quickly. David breaks up with him right after he gets back from a road trip. Kent knows before he even says anything because he walks into his apartment and there are boxes of David’s stuff packed up and set next to the door. He walks into the bedroom and finds David packing his clothes up into another box sitting on the closet floor.He says, “everything is just going so fast” and “I promise I never meant to lead you on” and “we’ll talk later okay? I promise.” Except A) they talked about moving in together for months before they finally decided to do it B) David was the one who wanted to move in in the first place and C) it’s been three weeks and David hasn’t so much as texted to see if Kent could bring over the few things he forgot at the apartment. So Kent knows he must have done something to mess this up, except he doesn’t know what. And so the whole pattern of him getting dumped by his exes without another word continues.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be two chapters! I already have the second chapter like 85% done so you'll probably see that pop up by Friday or Saturday!  
> This was a prompt I got from Pwoops on Tumblr who asked for a fake dating AU with Jeff and Kent. It's a little cheesy because why not?  
> Also this is totally unbeta'd so if there's anything like totally amiss let me know!

“I’m calling bullshit, he doesn’t exist.” Nora says over Skype. 

“Nora watch your damn language!” Kent’s mom looks like she’s trying to elbow his sister right now, but Nora keeps moving just out of her reach. 

“I’m serious mom! Kenny’s never even sent us a picture of this dude. I think he just got tired of you asking him if he was dating someone.” 

“Nora be nice to your brother. I think David sounds like a perfectly nice young man! You’re bringing him to Christmas, right?” 

“Pics or it didn’t happen.” Nora is saying just as Kent replies that yes of course he’s bringing David to the Parson family Christmas. They’ve already talked about it and David said he was excited to go. 

“Well I can’t wait to meet him.” Maggie Parson says warmly over the computer screen, “I’m so proud of you baby. I’m so happy you’re happy.” 

Kent has to stop himself from crying because his mom is the best person he knows and everything finally feels like it’s going his way. 

*** 

Which is why Kent really isn’t surprised when it goes to shit really quickly. David breaks up with him right after he gets back from a road trip. Kent knows before he even says anything because he walks into his apartment and there are boxes of David’s stuff packed up and set next to the door. He walks into the bedroom and finds David packing his clothes up into another box sitting on the closet floor. 

He says, “everything is just going so fast” and “I promise I never meant to lead you on” and “we’ll talk later okay? I promise.” Except A) they talked about moving in together for months before they finally decided to do it B) David was the one who wanted to move in in the first place and C) it’s been three weeks and David hasn’t so much as texted to see if Kent could bring over the few things he forgot at the apartment. So Kent knows he must have done something to mess this up, except he doesn’t know what. And so the whole pattern of him getting dumped by his exes without another word continues. 

Kent is lamenting about the whole thing to Jeff one night while the two of them are laying on his couch watching Blue Planet. Then he remembers one really big detail he had forgotten about until this moment. 

“Oh fuck!” 

Jeff nearly falls off of the couch, startled at Kent’s sudden outburst amongst the calming scenes of Blue Planet, “Jesus dude, what?” 

“He was supposed to come to Christmas with me!” Kent groans, and he hides his face in his hands, “Nora has been saying for months that she thinks I made him up and he was supposed to come to Christmas and now he isn’t.” 

Jeff just shrugs, “tell them the truth. He was an asshole and he dumped you and you’ll bring home the next boyfriend.” 

“I can’t do that.” Kent says, and he hate that his voice sounds physically pained. 

“Why not?” Jeff asks, and he sits up straight now and he’s got his full attention on Kent which means he wants to talk. Jeff has always been one of those people whose full attention is intense. It makes Kent shy away from it sometimes, knowing that Jeff is entirely focused on him when he has a problem he needs to talk through, even if he doesn’t want to talk through it. 

“I just… my mom was so happy when I told her I was bringing him and… if I say I broke up with him she’s going to worry that I’m self-sabotaging or something. If I tell her he broke up with me she’s going to call me four times a day and get sick with worry that I’m going to spiral again.” 

Jeff gives him the look when Kent mentions the spiraling. The ‘we never talk about Jack Zimmermann, but I’d really really like for you to be able to talk about it someday’ look. The two of them sit there in silence for a couple of minutes just stewing in their own thoughts. Jeff’s probably thinking about what he can do to make Kent feel better like he always does when something like this happens. Kent is about to say he’s just canceling Christmas plans and staying locked in his apartment when Jeff speaks again.

“I’ll go with you.” 

“Uh yeah I’m still going to have to tell them David broke up with me?” 

“No, I mean… tell them I was David.” 

Kent scoffs, “my mom has met you Jeffrey, that’s not going to work.” Kent rolls his eyes, over dramatically like the brat he is. 

“Kent. I’m serious. Tell them that I wasn’t comfortable being out to anyone yet and so you were calling me something else just to give me some time.” 

Kent thinks about it. That could theoretically work. Especially since Kent hasn’t really told his mom and Nora anything specific about David’s life. Kent thinks that’s mostly why Nora thinks he’s fake, but it’s working out in Kent’s favor now. Until he remembers the part of this that isn’t going to work. 

“What happens when we get back home, and we aren’t pretending anymore?” 

Jeff looks to be considering it for a moment and Kent thinks he’s going to say nevermind and this whole thing was a terrible idea, “we can pretend we’re still dating for a couple of months when we get back to Vegas. Then we can tell them we ended it amicably and we’re still friends. It wouldn’t be a lie, we’d still be friends. Then your sister won’t call you an attention seeking liar and your mom won’t worry about you because she’ll see that we’re still close and it didn’t end up like last-“ Jeff stops himself before he says last time but Kent already knows what he’s talking about. 

“You’re… you’re serious about this? You know we’re going to have to pretend to be in love and you’re going to have to hold my hand and kiss me every now and then right? You’re okay with that?” 

Jeff just lets out a huff that Kent thinks is supposed to be sarcastic, but huffs can’t really have emotions can they, “like that’s going to be hard to pretend to love my best friend. Come on dude. And the other stuff I don’t care about, no problem. I am nothing if an outstanding professional who can get any job done!” 

“Any job huh?” Kent grins at him, “just like that own goal you scored last week?” Jeff pretty much squawks at that and throws a throw pillow at Kent, but he thinks it's worth it. 

 

***  
As much as he hates to admit it, Kent has read a lot of corny romance novels over the years. He’s read at least two or three about fake dating and they all seemed ridiculous. Like how in the world could someone actually get themselves into that situation? The one common trope among them though, he’s found, is having to practice kissing the person you’re fake dating so it looks like you’ve been dating as long as you say you have. Kent knows he and Jeff won’t have this problem. 

Because they’ve already kissed. A lot. When Jeff had first signed with the Aces they had become fast friends. Fast friends who spent pretty much every second of the day they weren’t already on the ice together, together somewhere else. Spending that much time with someone, you’re bound to learn something about them and well, when Kent is mopey and sad and a little tipsy he talks. He talks a lot. 

And Jeff being Jeff had tried his best to make it better. And in this case making it better meant kissing it better. And one thing lead to another and kissing it better became doing something else to make it better. And Jeff had tried to make it better a lot. Like a lot a lot. And then Kent got weird and mopey about that and so Jeff tried to make it better in other ways. They’d been consummate professionals since then and hadn’t slipped up and surprisingly for Kent, their friendship hadn’t suffered because of it.

So anyways, Kent isn’t worried about that part. Jeff and he know practically everything about each other anyways, knows how the other works, that’s never been the problem. What he’s worried about is that he’s going to pretend to be in love with Jeff and then accidentally fall in love with Jeff. Which, yeah, he knows is another overused trope in fake dating romance novels. But the thing is, he’s already in love with Jeff, sorta, so does it really count? 

Anyways, he’s thinking about all of this while sitting next to Jeff on the plane from Vegas to New York, and he really wishes he had just sucked it up and let his mom know that he got dumped but.... The last time was so messy and his mom had to pick up all of Kent’s little broken pieces. She had almost threatened to find a way to force him to stay home instead of going out to Vegas in the months after he got drafted. So he wants his mom to think he’s in a loving and strong relationship and that he’s over all of the stuff from when he was a teenager. 

“Hey, you okay?” Kent startles when he hears Jeff’s voice right next to his ear. 

He looks over and Jeff is leaning in towards him, trying to keep his voice quiet. His face has got this really weird look on it that Kent isn’t quite sure he understands, but he looks concerned. Normally this is the part where Kent tells Jeff exactly what he’s thinking and exactly what’s up. Obviously he can’t fucking do that this this time and it sort of kills him. Especially since he knows Jeff is going to catch on sooner or later about how uncomfortable he is about this whole situation. 

“Yeah dude, I’m totally fine. You know how I get about planes.” Kent tries for a smile, but it spreads over his face as more of a grimace. 

The thing about the planes are true though, Kent can’t handle flying very well, so Jeff looks placated for now and just shoots Kent a worried glance, concerned for his health. He reaches out and takes Kent’s hand for just a second, swiping his thumb over Kent’s knuckles in a comforting gesture that’s probably meant to be comforting but just makes the feeling in Kent’s stomach worse. He really really doesn’t know if he’s going to survive this weekend. 

*** 

When they make it off the plane they’re supposed to meet his mom and Nora in baggage claim. Kent is getting nervous, bouncing his leg up and down and swiveling his head every two seconds over his shoulder trying to see if he can find his mom or Nora waiting for them. So far no one with the patented Parson blond hair is waiting around for them. 

Jeff looks like he wants to say something about Kent’s continuously bouncing leg. He keeps looking at him from the corner of his eye every second he isn’t looking out for their bags. Kent is trying not to be weird about this, he really really is. But every second that draws closer to his mom and Nora seeing them and realizing that Jeff is the one with him, his heart starts beating faster and his stomach feels heavier. He hears Jeff heave a sigh from beside him. 

“Kent, if you don’t want to do this we can just tell them you broke up with your boyfriend but had the extra ticket and asked me if I wanted to come with you since I couldn’t go home.” 

Kent thinks about it for a moment. This is his opportunity to take an out and preserve whatever dignity with Jeff he has left. Sure he has to listen to Nora teasing him about his made up boyfriend for the next couple of days but she’s never mean about her teasing and he knows she’d stop if she knew he was uncomfortable. He doesn’t know what to say to Jeff though so he just waves his hand and makes a noncommittal grunt. They don’t have anymore time to talk about it though because their bags are coming up the conveyor belt the same time Kent hears a loud, “Kenny!” ring through the airport. 

Jeff had moved to the other side of the belt to chase down their luggage so he’s standing alone when his mom and Nora come rushing up to him with their arms open. His mom gets to him first and envelopes him in one of the tightest hugs he’s gotten in a while. Nora is crowded up against his back, arms overlapping their mom’s around his waist. They hold him like that between the two of them, their hair getting in his face and tickling his neck, before stepping back. His mom holds him at arm’s length so she can get a good look at him like she does every time she sees him, even if it’s only been a couple of months. 

Nora's gone to the other side of him to stand next to their mom and her eyes are moving around, looking for something. Kent just heaves a sigh because he knows what she’s looking for, “he’s over there getting our luggage.” Kent throws his thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the conveyor belt. 

Nora is on her tiptoes now trying to see over everyone to catch a glimpse of “David.”  
She has no idea what he looks like anyways so Kent doesn’t know how she would find him in the throng of bodies waiting for their baggage. She must see something that catches her eye though because there’s a shock of surprise on her face and then a frown. 

“Kent, I thought you said you were bringing your boyfriend with you?” 

“I did!”

Nora is narrowing her eyes at him, “then why is Jeff Troy grabbing your bags right now? Where’s David?” 

Their mom is starting to get this pinched look on her face. Like she’s two seconds away from saying ‘oh, Kenny’ in that voice that makes him know her heart is breaking and it’s his fault, “well… I uhm. There’s a good reason for that?” It sounds like a question. 

“Is that a question?” Nora frowns at him and he can feel his palms start to get sweaty. 

Before he gets to answer though, Jeff is standing next to him, both of their bags in hand. He sets them down and takes his mom’s hand and shakes it, “it’s nice meeting you again, Ms. Parson.” 

His mom is a little awestruck, Kent can see it in her face. Which… that’s fair. Jeff is tall, he’s broad, he’s got this wavy brown hair that curls over his ears, and the biggest brown eyes that Kent has ever seen. It’s sort of hard not to be swept into that. The four of them are standing there silently before Kent’s mom finally speaks up again. 

“Please dear, call me Maggie. I’m surprised you’re here though. Kent told me his boyfriend was coming to Christmas. Did he have to cancel?” 

Kent wants a hole to swallow him now. He should have cancelled. He should have cancelled and bought his mom and Nora the most amazing cruise package or something and told him he’d make it up to them later. He should have said David’s grandma was sick so he had to go home for Christmas instead. He should have maybe just been honest in the first place but that’s not always his forte. 

Jeff takes control of the situation again and hands Kent his luggage while he takes the other one, “well there’s a funny story about that.” He starts as he and Maggie start leading the way out of baggage claim and into the parking lot. 

*** 

“So let me get this straight,” Maggie starts, Nora snorts from her seat at the Parson kitchen table, “Jeff wasn’t out to the rest of your team or anyone else really so you decided to call him by a fake name until he was ready for you to tell us that he was the one you were dating?” 

“Well when you say it in that tone, it sounds ridiculous but basically, yeah.” Kent is trying to rub the tension that’s built up behind his eyes out of his face, but it’s not working. 

Jeff, very obviously, grabs his hand and holds it gentle but firm in view of his mother and Nora, “Ms. Parson, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t ashamed of Kent at all. I just… I was really lucky that he decided to wait for me. I just needed some time to get used to the idea of having a relationship, and I didn’t want Kent to feel pressured that he had to move fast either. So we decided we’d wait until it felt right for both of us to start telling other people. We wanted some time to ourselves first.” 

Maggie looks at him with piercing blue eyes but finally, in the last second it seems, relents, “well I always did like you Jeff. And… well I’m glad you two are so understanding of each other’s needs. That sounds really wonderful Kenny.” 

Kent lets out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding since they got off the plane hours ago. His mom was smiling at him from across the table, and even Nora looked like the whole conversation had put her mind at ease as well. Kent figured he and Jeff were going to get through the next four days pretty easily if everything kept going like this. 

“Thanks Ma, I appreciate it,” he figured he should lay it on thick here since they hadn’t really shown a lot of PDA since getting in, “I’m really lucky I have Jeff too.” Kent looked up, turning his bright smile on Jeff, the one he used when he was teasing him to hell and back about something. 

Jeff looked momentarily caught off guard, but he recovered quickly and was leaning down, a smile of his own. There was a soft press of lips and not two seconds later they were gone again. Jeff sending him a matching grin. Nora made a gagging sound from across the table and Kent could see their mom try to elbow her from where they were sitting. 

“You’re so mushy oh my god. How did I not know you were this mushy?” Nora asked grinning at the two of them, “that’s totally embarrassing Kent.” 

“You’re life is embarrassing Nora.” Kent stuck his tongue out at her, not his best comeback. 

“Nah, I like it,” Jeff says quiet and low and for some reason that doesn’t feel like a whole table conversation, it sounds like something that was meant only for Kent. 

“Wow. I cannot believe that the two of you are in a loving committed relationship where you’re all over each other and I am still hopelessly single. What the fuck, Kent?” 

“Nora, language!” 

Jeff just laughs, “hey you know what? I don’t know if your brother ruined hockey player as a type for you, but I could set you up with Rosie! He’s your age, and he keeps saying he misses dating people who only want to date hockey players.” 

“You will absolutely not set my sister up with any one of our teammates.” 

“Oh man, Rosie is the really tall one with the like swoopy red hair right? Because if he is you have full permission to slip him my number.” Kent can't help himself from groaning. 

“You two have the same fucked up humor so I’m like 100% sure it’s going to be a match made in heaven.” Jeff grins at her. 

“It’s going to be a match made in nothing because we are not setting my sister up with one of my teammates!”

Nora scoffs, “oh so you’re allowed to date your teammates but I’m not allowed to date your teammates?” 

“I think that would be nice Jeff. Lord knows Nora needs someone with their life on track.” Maggie teases. 

Nora has her life perfectly on track. She’s going to school in California, she’s double majoring in Psychology and Human Resources Management (which Kent still isn’t sure he knows what that is) and she’s right on schedule to graduate and do like amazing things in the world. Sometimes when she talks about school he wonders what it would have been like to go to college but then he remembers those times he went to Samwell and the thought of going to college, even after retirement, leaves a bad taste in his mouth. 

“Kent, you okay?” Kent jolts back into the present and Jeff is looking at him with a concerned look on his face. He reaches over to cup the back of his neck in his big (impossibly big) hand and squeezes reassuringly. 

“Yeah totally cool. Just thinking about what a joke it is that Rosie could possibly be described as someone with his life on track.” Kent grins, it may be a little mean to lay into him like this when he isn’t here to defend himself. 

Maggie lets out a yawn then, covering her mouth as she does so, “well I’m going to bed so I’ll see you children in the morning.” She gets up from the table and starts to head out towards the back of the house where her room is, before she stops, “Kent I set your room up so you and Jeff can settle down whenever you like.” 

“We don’t have to sleep in separate rooms? That’s mighty progressive of you Ms. Parson.” Jeff chirps good naturedly. 

Maggie levels Jeff with a stare, “sweetheart how do you think Kent was conceived?” 

“Jesus, Mom!” But Maggie is already gone. 

Jeff is grinning like wild, “your mom is the best, I love her.” 

Nora is grinning too, “hey Kent, this is good! It’s not every day the boyfriend likes the in-laws right? Anyways, I’m going to bed too. Remember my room is on the same floor as yours so don’t be too loud please!” 

“That’ll be impossible, you know Kent likes to talk.” Jeff still has this shit eating grin on his face and he and Nora look at each other and smile like they’re having some kind of psychic conversation and Kent really wants a black hole to swallow him up. 

When Nora disappears upstairs the two of them stay at the table a little bit longer. The silence that stretches out between them is companionable. The type of silence that you relish in instead of trying desperately to think of any awkward thing to say just to stop the silence. Eventually though Kent, like he always does with extended periods of silence, gets antsy and needs to talk again. 

“I’m uh… I’m really happy you decided to come with me this weekend. I mean I know it was your idea but… you’re really helping me out. And… and my mom seems to love you so I think she might actually stop worrying about me for once.” 

“Of course your mom loves me, I’m like parent bait.” Jeff chirps, but he reaches out and grabs Kent’s hand in his and squeezes gently, “but for the record I’m glad I’m here for you too.” 

Kent can feel his face get hot and he pulls his hand out of Jeff’s, “yep. We should uh… we should go to bed probably? It’s late.” Kent gets up from the table abruptly and there’s a look on Jeff’s face that he doesn’t understand but he’s not really in the mindset to question it right now. 

Jeff gets up and follows him to the stairs to go to their room for the weekend. The third step from the top creaks obnoxiously when they step on it and there’s a muffled yell from Nora's room that neither of them can make out. Kent just rolls his eyes and keeps walking until they’ve made it to the last door in the hallway upstairs. Kent suddenly wishes he had looked upstairs in his room before now because he doesn’t remember the state he left it in last time he was home. 

When he was younger, still in his early teens his room was a shrine to hockey. His Bantam and Juniors trophies were spread out all over shelves and bookcases. He had posters of Gretzky, Leetch, Richter, and Messier on his walls (so sue him he grew up in New York) that were placed between posters of Nsync and Britney Spears and he really wasn’t sure what Jeff was going to say about all of that. 

He opens the door and the two of them step in, Nora already having shoved their bags up there when they got to the house. Everything seems normal, Kent didn’t leave clothes all over the ground the last time he was here at least. He tries to sneak a peek back at Jeff who is looking around the room with innocent curiosity but nothing on his face shows what he actually thinks about all the posters and old trophies and medals strewn about the room. 

“Uh… make yourself at home? I mean it’s not like the biggest room or anything but have at it. My room is your room and all that.” 

“You know, after rooming with you for so long I thought that your room was going to be an absolute mess of a disaster but this is the cleanest thing I think I’ve seen associated with you like… ever.” 

Kent scoffs as he peels off his shirt and pants to pull on his pjs, “yeah yuck it up.” He doesn’t want to add that his mom comes in here and periodically cleans otherwise Jeff is going to chirp him to hell and back. 

When he turns around after wrestling the shirt over his head, Jeff is standing in the middle of his room without a shirt on. It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before. In more than one context even. But for some reason the sight of it makes his brain frizzle and his mouth go dry. The room is suddenly too small. His bed, now that he looks at the Full sized mattress seems like it’s actually a twin. He is suddenly very aware of the fact that he’s absolutely fucked. 

Kent wishes he could say he was a live and let go type of person. That he was a forgive and forget, a learn your lesson and move on, a leave the past in the past type of person. But he’s none of those things. He never lets anything go. As a matter of fact he still remembers the name of the kid in first grade who pushed him down and stole his favorite Pokemon cards. He remembers the name of the first goalie to ever glove a shot of his in juniors. He remembers the first time he thought he was in love, the first time he knew he was in love, the first time he wished he had never fallen in love. 

Anyways the point is, is that Kent has a pathological inability to let anything go. His therapist once started saying something about how he thought it had to do with his dad leaving him and the fact that Kent can hardly remember anything about him so he feels like he has to hold on to everything else. Kent got a different therapist after that. But he’s standing here now, looking at Jeff as he’s pulling on a shirt for bed and Kent realizes he never let go of that either. 

All it took was seeing Jeff shirtless again in a situation that isn’t 100% platonic for Kent to become the absolute asshole he is and remember every little thing that they did and went through the first couple of years Kent was in Vegas. He remembers very distinctly about how he was the one who told Jeff they had to stop what they were doing. He remembers very distinctly the look on Jeff’s face when he had asked why. The point is, Kent absolutely can’t let shit go and it’s going to ruin every single friendship he has one day. 

Jeff finally notices him staring and quirks an eyebrow at him, “you okay over there dude?” 

“Yep. Totally fine. Couldn’t be better. Just you know, jet lagged and all that.” 

Jeff doesn’t look like he believes him but he slips in under the covers of Kent’s childhood bed anyways. He’s laying on his back and has his phone out, reading text messages or something, not even paying attention to Kent any more. It’s like he either can’t tell how awkward this whole situation is, or he doesn’t care. Which Kent thinks it honestly could be either. Jeff is the kind of guy who can purposefully act like he doesn’t understand a reporter’s question over and over and over until the reporter just gives up if he doesn’t like the question. It always comes off as genuine misunderstanding but everyone knows Jeff is doing it on purpose. 

Kent walks over to the light switch next to his door and flips it off. The only light in the room now is the illumination from Jeff’s phone screen. He walks back over to the bed, grabbing his own phone on the way over and slips in beside him. The bed is large enough that they don’t have to touch, but that they definitely can feel each other’s body heat and Kent is adding that onto the list of things he’s trying not to think about anymore. The two of them lay next to each other, Jeff occasionally laughing quietly at something he sees on his phone. It isn’t too long before Kent is asleep. 

* * *  
Kent wakes up and the room isn’t completely dark any longer. It’s that weird misty grey color that lets you know daylight is an hour or two away, but that you can still pretend it’s night time if you want. The second thing Kent notices is that his mouth feels like he hasn’t drank water in days it’s so dry. The third thing, Jeff isn’t in bed with him any longer, probably using the bathroom or something. 

Kent slips out from underneath the covers and pads over the carpet to his bedroom door and slips out. He manages to miss the creaky step third from the top this time and continues his way down the stairs. He smells coffee when he hits the bottom landing. His mom has always been an early riser so she’s probably just getting her day started. When he gets closer to the entrance of the door though he can hear muffled voices. There’s no way its Nora because she refuses to get out of bed before 9 ever, so it must be Jeff. 

He sneaks a little closer to the kitchen and sure enough he can hear Jeff’s voice mixing with his mother’s now, distinctly. Kent can’t say that he doesn’t want to eavesdrop because that’s exactly what he wants to do. It’s only Jeff and his mother anyways so it’s not like they can be saying much that’s private he thinks. This should be okay. 

“You know I was worried about Kenny. When he went to Vegas. He’d just had this hugely traumatic thing happen to him and now he’s going all the way across the country. But… he would text Nora and I a lot, told us about all of you. It made me worry a little less.” 

Kent doesn’t know what Jeff’s face is doing but he imagines its that weird shy smile he gets when someone compliments him, “we all really liked him. Wanted him to know he was part of our family you know? I’m glad he could tell.” 

“He could always tell, I think. Especially with you. I’m not sure exactly how the two of you decided to start your relationship but… but Kent was always talking about you more than the other boys. About how nice you were, how you always were looking out for him, I’m pretty sure he used the word overprotective asshole a few times.” Kent can hear his mom laugh gently, “he really loves you. I’m his mother so I can tell.” 

Jeff makes some sort of noise, “I… that means a lot to me Ms. Parson, I appreciate it. And… I hope you know how much I love him too. He’s been my best friend since the day he showed up at training camp and… I’m really lucky I have him.” 

The sincerity in Jeff’s voice is so damn real that Kent nearly gasps because it feels like a confession he’s getting for the first time. But then he remembers he’s good at this. Jeff is the one person on their team who has an actual poker face and never breaks. He’s just trying to play his part for his mom as well as he can. He wants Kent’s mom to believe him, and Kent is pretty sure she is. 

He manages to miss the creak on the way back up the stairs too. 

* * * 

When eight finally hits and the sun is fully shining into Kent’s bedroom window he opens his eyes. Jeff is already awake, laying beside him, scrolling through his phone. When Kent shifts his weight, stretching out his limbs Jeff turns to look at him, giving him a small smile. 

“It’s about time you decided to wake up, Sleeping Beauty.” 

“Okay first of all, it’s only like eight in the morning, that’s not that bad for vacation okay? Secondly it’s not my fault that you’re some weird person who thinks getting up at the ass crack of dawn is acceptable.” 

Jeff stills for a moment, “you woke up when I left the bed this morning?” 

Kent just shrugs, “not when you left but like when you were already gone? I had to piss. Came straight back to bed. Where were you anyways?” 

Jeff is silent and Kent wonders if he’s going to tell him something important now, “couldn’t sleep, went on a run.” 

And… well Kent’s confused. Why would Jeff lie to him. It would have been perfectly okay for him to say, ‘oh couldn’t sleep went downstairs and talked to your mom for a bit’ but he doesn’t. Instead he makes up something Kent knows didn’t happen but it’s not like he can say anything because then he’ll know that Kent wasn’t telling the truth either. 

“Dude it’s New York in December why would you ever go on a run, you’re crazy.” Kent smiles at him, makes it a chirp. 

“Uh Dude,” Jeff says, smile just as big since his favorite pastime is mocking Kent, “I’m from Canada remember? Not that big of a deal.” 

Kent has a hard time coming up with a chirp to get back at him because his brain is short-circuiting at the smile Jeff is wearing on his face. Jeff’s smile is slipping a little bit, and not because he’s upset but because he’s started looking at Kent in a weird way now that needs a lot more than a smile to convey. The air in the room gets heavy in the way when you know something important is about to happen but you’re not sure what it is yet. 

“Why are you losers just staring at each other like that? Is that what people in love do?” 

Kent and Jeff jump apart from each other like they were electrocuted. Nora is standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame. She’s tapping away at her phone, not even looking at the two of them. Kent feels like an idiot, especially since his sister called them out and then doesn’t even look interested enough to follow through with another chirp. Jeff just laughs beside him though, breaking their silence. 

“Uh no, this is what people in love do!” And Jeff grabs Kent around the waist and pulls him into his lap, and because Kent and he talked about kissing each other beforehand, he goes ahead and lays one on him. 

Not a normal kiss oh no. Jeff has his hands holding the sides of Kent’s face, not hard but like he’s trying to cradle his jaw or something. He’s slanted his head so he and Kent fit together perfectly like puzzle pieces. Kent doesn’t even bother putting up a protest. He can’t remember (that’s a lie he remembers it vividly) the last time he and Jeff were close like this. He opens his mouth for him and without hesitation Jeff’s hands leave his face and one cups the back of his neck and the other pulls him in with an arm wrapped securely around his waist. Kent let’s a breathy gasp leave his mouth (and maybe he played that one up a little bit to annoy Nora) and Jeff’s arms tighten around him. 

“Jesus! Okay I get it you assholes my god.” Nora is looking at them like they’ve each frown another head. 

Kent leans back just a enough to turn his head and look at her, “it’s okay if you don’t know what kissing is Nora. Do you want me to tell you where babies come from too?” 

Jeff is snickering quietly below him, his arm still wrapped around his waist. The one that was clutching the back of his neck now resting on his thigh, “don’t worry Nora, you’re going to find someone someday! Oh! Oh! I used to practice on a pillow when I was young!” 

Nora just rolls her eyes, “thanks but no thanks, I’m pretty sure I’ve slept with more boys than you two combined. Besides I think I’ve got a good chance at something with this one too.” She waves her phone at them with a wide smile on her face. Kent can’t tell who she’s talking to, but it has a text chat on the screen, a long one from the looks of it. 

“Nora I just want you to know that I love you and I wish I had a sister like you.” Jeff is smiling at her. 

Kent is grumbling about how Jeff doesn’t even have a sister at the same time Nora is grinning back at Jeff saying, “I know it’s too bad I don’t have a brother like you too. That would have been nice.” She looks pointedly at Kent, but she’s still smiling and he knows it’s a joke. She pushes off the doorframe and is about to head out before she turns around again, “oh, by the way mom wants you to know if either of you needs to iron your suits before dinner tonight?” 

“Suits?” Jeff asks, “you didn’t tell me to bring a suit.” 

“Uh yeah, because my mother didn’t tell me to bring a suit either. Suit for what?” 

Nora looks like she’s frozen in place. Her face doesn’t look alarmed but it definitely looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Like she isn’t sure if she should say what the suits are for or whether she should let their mom tell them herself. Nora locks her phone screen and shoves it in her jeans pocket before stepping into the room a couple of feet and sitting down on the corner of the bed. 

“We were invited to uh... a Christmas party tonight?” 

Kent looks at her, his eyebrows knitting together, “okay?” 

Nora is worrying her bottom lip a little, and Kent can feel Jeff’s hand on his thigh tighten a little, “we got invited to a Christmas party up at Saranac Lake.” 

And that has more meaning to Kent. Saranac Lake is only a twenty minute drive from Kent’s childhood home. Saranac Lake is home to expensive houses and even more expensive cabins on the Lake. It’s home to the stupid Ice Palace that people lose their minds over. It’s home to one of the most expensive resorts New York has to offer, and it’s home to the summer cabin of the Svara family. The Svara family whose daughter Alicia married hockey legend Bad Bob Zimmermann. So when Nora says they’re invited to a Christmas party at Saranac Lake, Kent knows there’s only one family that would have invited them. 

“Oh shit.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said that this was going to be 2 parts but then if it was only two parts the second part would have been way too long and I have a weird thing about making chapters as close together when it comes to word count as possible (even though I frequently don't do that)?   
> Anyways, here's part 2!   
> Part 3 next week :)

“Oh God Kent, I am so so sorry. I thought you knew! I thought Alicia or Bob would have said something to you too.” 

“No. No one said anything to me!” 

“Kenny, we can tell them that we aren’t coming. We can tell them something came up and that something came up or that someone got sick.” 

“No. No don’t do that. It’s literally tonight that would sound like I was making us cancel on purpose.” 

“Kent honestly, if I had realized they’d only talked to me about it, I would have called you and told you about it immediately.” Her voice sounds a little frenzied, like this is the worst thing that she could have done to him.

“It’s okay mom. I’m not… I’m not upset. I’m just, sometimes I need to like… meditate or prepare myself mentally before I see them sometimes. It’s not… there’s no bad feelings or anything anymore. You know Jack and I are friends again, it’s just… it’s still hard sometimes, is all.” 

Jeff and Nora can’t hear anything else, Maggie’s voice goes low and they don’t hear Kent respond to anything after that. Plus, Maggie had shut them behind her bedroom door anyways, so it was muffled to begin with. The two of them had been standing in the hallway next to her door, Jeff had tried to slip away, not wanting to eavesdrop, but Nora had grabbed his sleeve and held him there with her. They slip away now, back into the living room and take a seat on the couch. 

They’re quiet for a moment before Nora finally speaks up, “did… did Kent tell you about all the uh,” she waves her hand around, “that happened in the Q?” 

“Yeah he… he told me everything.” He stresses the word everything, he’s sure Nora knows what he means. 

“Kent was… he was really close to the Zimmermann’s you know? Not just Jackie,” and the familiarity of the nickname makes Jeff start a little bit but he doesn’t show it, “but he was close to Alicia and Bob too. Living away from home, it was like Alicia was his second mom and… Bob was like the dad we never had you know? He was there for Kent for a lot.” 

“Yeah Kent’s… he’s talked about it some.” 

“When everything happened with Jackie, it wasn’t just him that got cut out of Kent’s life it was Jack and Alicia too. It was his support system away from home you know? His second family. He… He really loves them but even with Kent and Jackie talking like normal now it’s still hard for him sometimes.” 

“I… I know. He’s… I’ve seen that.” Jeff doesn’t really want to go more into detail. He knows that Kent and Nora talk about nearly everything, but he’s not sure if this is one of the things they haven’t. 

“I hate being this sappy but… I’m really glad that he has you, you know? Just in the day and a half the two of you have been here he’s seemed happier. You two have been dating for like… forever. But he acts like it’s still new, like the two of you still can’t get enough of each other and I just, well that’s nice for Kent and I’m just really happy he has you.” 

Jeff doesn’t know what to say. He feels like a liar, but he thinks telling the truth would make things worse for everyone right now. So instead he just says, “I’m really happy I can be there for him. He honestly makes me a better person. And sometimes he can be an absolute prick.” That gets a laugh out of Nora, “but my life is better that he’s in it.” 

Nora scoots over from her side of the couch, closer to Jeff and wraps her arms around his waist, digging her face into the front of his chest. Jeff can tell from her shaking shoulders that she’s crying at least a little. Jeff wraps his arms around her and holds her. Wonders if he had had his own sister if he would get to comfort her like this too. 

They can hear the footsteps on the hardwood floor getting closer to the living room and Nora pulls away from Jeff just as Kent is walking into the living room. He gives them a weird look before plastering a smile on his face, “you’re trying to steal my sister now? What you wanted to see if you could bag both Parson siblings? I mean obviously I don’t blame you because we’re a catch.” 

Nora scoffs, “please I don’t need your sloppy seconds, I have my own boy.” She winks at Jeff and Jeff squeezes her hand gently before she pushes herself off of the couch and heads upstairs. 

“What was that all about?” Kent asks when they hear the door to her room open and close. 

“No idea,” Jeff says getting up from the couch, he walks over to where Kent is and loops an arm around his waist pulling him close. Kent’s cheeks color pink but he doesn’t pull away, “I’ve never understood women.” 

“Women I get,” Kent scoffs, “Nora I have never understood. Hey who do you think she’s been texting all of last night and today?” 

Jeff just smiles, “No idea. So I hear we need suits?” 

Kent sighs, “yeah we need suits.” 

* * * 

Apparently getting suits just meant Kent called someone and had them make sure there was something waiting for them when he met them halfway. Where that was Jeff has no idea. Kent made him stay in Lake Placid. Jeff really thinks he just wanted a couple hours to himself to blare sad pop music in the car and cry. Jeff doesn’t know why he couldn’t have done that with him in the car since he’s done it approximately 800 times since he’s known him. 

It’s whatever though. Jeff isn’t upset about it like, at all. When Kent does get back home though, he’s carrying a garment bag in each hand. He’s holding them up high, like he doesn’t want anything to accidentally touch them even though they’re in garment bags. He shoves one at Jeff. 

“Tell me what you think!” He says hurriedly, “I mean I see how you dress at events so I decided to make the decision on my own.” 

Jeff is watching Kent carefully. He doesn’t have red eyes or a blotchy face, both of which happen when he cries even if he denies it. Although two and a half hours in a car by himself has given him enough time to cry and clear up his face. He’s practically bouncing on the balls of his feet though waiting for Jeff to open the garment bag. Jeff figures he can be extra nice to him right now. 

He takes his time unzipping the bag which makes Kent reach out and slap him on the arm, “okay okay! I’m doing it, god you’re pushy.” Jeff grins at him as he zips it far enough to see the jacket. 

It’s a dark blue fabric that looks like it almost has a shimmer to it. Subtle enough that Jeff could just be imagining it but he’s going to do a double take every time he sees it. The lapels are wide and rounded and black silk. It looks like it’s going to be incredibly fitted, “Kent, this is a really beautiful jacket, but I think it might be too small for me.” 

“Nah dude, I know your measurements.” Kent says, like every bro has their best bros suit measurements. 

“By memory?” 

Kent looks a little bashful now and Jeff wishes he could have kept the incredulous tone out of his voice, “I mean like… I did get you those shirts for your birthday last year because you were complaining about how all you had to go underneath your suits were plain white shirts?”

And… well Jeff hadn’t known that those were custom made shirts. He had just assumed that Kent had looked at the size tag of one of the thirty white button ups in his closet and called it a day, “where uh… where did you get my measurements from?” his voice sounds like it’s cracking. 

“Miranda? Your publicist?” Kent says like that should have been Jeff’s first thought. 

“I know who Miranda is, Kent. But uh… that was really thoughtful of you. Thank you. I appreciate that you thought about that.” 

Kent’s face does something weird after he says it. And Jeff knows that Kent doesn’t get a lot of genuine compliments and thank you’s very often so he tries to do it as much as he can. At first it was just to see him squirm because he honestly doesn’t know how to take a compliment but then Jeff realized how sad it was. 

“It’s no big deal. I’d do the same for anyone else.” 

Jeff knows that’s a lie but he doesn’t call Kent out on it, “okay. Show me yours?” 

Kent’s face lights up again as he unzips his garment bag like a kid would rip the wrapping paper off of a Christmas present, “tada!” he holds it out for Jeff to look at. 

It’s nearly the same color as Jeff’s is, but maybe half a shade lighter. This one though has a stitched in black floral pattern all over the entire jacket. Jeff reaches out to touch it because he’s always been tactile and he can’t help it. It’s smooth under his fingertips, but he can feel the texture of the stitching too. It’s a beautiful jacket and Kent is going to look beautiful in it. He tells him because he figures he should. 

Kent’s face immediately burns under the compliment. He looks like he’s about to say something but Nora is in the living room a second later, “I thought you two didn’t want anyone to know you were together?” 

Kent looks at her quizzically, “Uh yeah that’s the plan.” 

Nora scoffs, her eyebrows drawn in, “yeah but you two are going to show up to an intimate Christmas party in matching dinner jackets?” 

And well… Kent hadn’t really thought about that. Neither had Jeff either when he’d seen the jackets. And they did match. They were both almost the same color of deep blue. Kent’s had black pants and Jeff’s had a pair in the matching blue, but they would look nearly identical. Jeff didn’t really care, but he was sure Kent was going to think about it for the rest of the night and make himself sick with all the second guessing he was going to be doing. 

“Nah, it’s alright. I don’t care if people assume anything.” Jeff says. 

“Since when?” Kent asks him and then he looks a little bit guilty because sure, Kent was the one to end all of their… whatever it was back then, but that had been a small part of it too. 

“Since now. We’re together officially aren’t we? I don’t care if 50 people at Bad Bob Zimmermann’s holiday party think that we might be fucking.” 

Nora makes an over exaggerated gagging sound but Kent tosses his garment bag on the couch and falls into Jeff’s arms dramatically, playing it up for Nora, “Jeff Troy, you’re my hero.” And Jeff knew he should have never let Kent watch Ferris Bueller with him. 

“The best, I know.” He responds, kissing the tip of Kent’s nose before pulling down and planting his lips on Kent’s in a quick and chaste touch. 

Nora just sighs from across the living room, “I know I make fun of you two a lot for how mushy you are. But it is genuinely like really cute. Just wait though. The first time I have a boy in front of the two of you it’s going to be game on.” 

“You have to find a boy first!” Kent chirps. 

Nora waves her phone at the two of them, “maybe I have! Ever thought about that?” 

Kent pauses, “wait, do you really have a boyfriend? Is that who you’ve been texting non-stop the last day? Nora you know having your phone attached to you that much makes you antisocial right?” It’s a running joke between the two of them, who’s attached to their IG the most. Kent is obviously winning. 

Nora just flips him off, “guess you’ll have to wait and see! Anyways, I’m going to go start getting ready.” 

Kent glances at the clock, “we have like four hours before we even need to leave.” 

“Did I fucking stutter, Kenny?” 

“Like it doesn’t take you half an hour just to position your hair the way you like it let alone everything else?” Jeff teases. 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Go start your three hour shower. Save some hot water for the rest of us.” 

Kent drapes his garment bag over the back of the couch and sits down. Jeff follows suit, and sits close enough to Kent that he could touch him if he wanted to, but not close enough that they’re pressed together thigh to thigh. The two of them sit in quiet and Jeff’s leg is about to start bouncing up and down from nerves or something he isn’t sure. 

“I’m not like… scared to go or anything.” Kent says suddenly, “to the party I mean. I’ve known the Zimmermanns more than a decade. It's more that I… every single time I see them I’m suddenly 17 again and it’s the day before the draft. Like I need to apologize to them every time I see them.” His voice is shaky and Jeff’s heart aches for him. 

He reaches out and grabs Kent’s hand in his own. They’ve been doing it a lot lately. And yeah, they’re supposed to be pretending to be boyfriends but he’s not used to touching Kent so intimately. They give each other hugs, fist bumps, Jeff ruffles his hair all the time or hip checks him. But this… this is more meaningful. This is something they probably just can’t forget about later. 

“You have nothing to apologize for Kent. You didn’t… you were seventeen. There wasn’t anything you could do. Sure, you could have told his parents but Kent, there are adults who don’t think of that shit. It wasn’t on you. If they think that this was your fault somehow, after all this time… they don’t deserve to know you.” 

Kent looks over at Jeff with a small smile and squeezes his hand. For Jeff, that says more than he could ever dream of. 

* * * 

A few hours later and the entire Parson clan is ready to go. Kent, Jeff, and Maggie are standing by the front door waiting for Nora to come down from upstairs. Kent is tapping his foot impatiently, but Jeff thinks it’s a little hypocritical because he literally just finished messing with his hair about two minutes ago. Finally Jeff hears Nora's shoes on the floor and she’s coming down the stairs. 

Honestly she looks beautiful. Her curly blond hair is pulled back and tucked so it looks like her hair is shorter than it is. She’s wearing this form fitting white dress that’s sparkly on the top with… well it looks like feathers, Jeff isn’t sure. Her feet are clad in these red high heels that have a little jewel hanging off the ankle strap. Honestly, Jeff wants to tell her she looks great, but Kent is still buzzing with nervous energy beside him and Jeff knows one of the things that the two of them enjoy the most is making fun of the other (Jeff doesn’t understand them to be honest). So instead of complimenting how nice she looks, Jeff says something else. 

“You look like big bird, only if he like spilled bleach all over himself.” 

Nora pauses on the steps and narrows her eyes at him, her mouth getting pinched. Kent meanwhile lets out a honk that sounds suspiciously like a goose. He’s nearly doubled over, holding on to the banister of the staircase. His face his turning red from laughing. Jeff feels pretty good about himself right then, that he was able to make Kent laugh. He looks back over at Nora and she’s smiling at him. He knows she feels the same way. 

Kent has righted himself back up. He’s wiping tears out of his eyes from the laughter, “big bird oh my god. Where did you even get that dress? You look good.” Kent is grinning at her and holding his arm out for her to take. 

Nora rolls her eyes, “you’re such an asshole. You bought me this you idiot.” She takes his hand down and he helps her the rest of the way down the stairs. 

When they get into the SUV Kent bought his mom for Christmas one year, Kent crawls into the backseat with him to give Nora the front. Even though no one can see them, Jeff reaches out for Kent’s hand, takes it and squeezes. He doesn’t know how to explain the feeling when Kent’s hand squeezes back. 

* * * 

Jeff has only met Bob Zimmermann once in his life. They were at a charity event that Kent had signed him up to go to with him. Honestly he didn’t mind the schmoozing on the Aces’ behalf with all the free booze and food that he was being plied with at the same time. Kent never really left his side either (and yeah, this was at the height of their casual benefits situation, but Jeff thought that Kent was probably just a good friend) which Jeff was appreciative for. And since Kent wasn’t leaving his side, it meant that almost everyone who wanted to talk to Kent (and there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to Kent) ended up talking to him by default. 

Bob Zimmermann happened to be one of them. Jeff doesn’t remember the conversation. He remembers how Kent tensed up when he saw Bob approaching. He remembers the easy smile Bob threw Kent’s way and how it did nothing to calm Kent’s nerves. He remembers that Bob kept calling Kent either “Kiddo” or “Son” and never once actually said his name. He remembers thinking he wanted to yell at him for never checking up on Kent like he should have when he got thrown into the NHL without any kind of support. 

But Jeff held his tongue. Shook his hand and introduced himself. Helped make small talk to take some of the responsibility of keeping up the conversation off of Kent. The whole event lasted maybe six or seven minutes before Bob excused himself to go talk to someone he knew from “his time.” But Kent was tense the rest of the night. Whether it was from anger, or sadness, or something else Jeff never figured out. Kent never tended to take his emotions out on Jeff. He did end up taking other pent up emotions out on Jeff that night, but Jeff couldn’t say he wasn’t enthusiastically encouraging that one. 

Now that he’s standing here remembering that all though, this feels a little surreal. He’s standing in the middle of a resort the Zimmermann’s rented out. There’s at least 100 people milling about, mingling and laughing over the soft din of jazzy Christmas music. Jeff hasn’t even caught sight of the Zimmermann’s yet, either of them. He sort of hopes he doesn’t. After that first Bad Bob meeting, he’d grown to know way more about Kent than he had before. And none of it, no matter how much Kent said he adored Bob and Alicia, did much to endear either of them to him. He wasn’t sure if he would bite his tongue like he did last time. 

He’s trying to think of a good one-liner he can let rip if the occasion presents itself. Something he can say, and then turn on his heel and stomp away like a badass. Maybe something that’ll make Bob think about how he abandoned a kid who looked at him as a father to the frenzied waters of the NHL. He’s come up with a few options, trying them all out in his head when Kent tugs on his sleeve. 

“Hey, you okay?” 

“What? Yeah I’m totally fine dude, why?” 

Kent gives him a look that Jeff has come to understand means “I know everything about you, so don’t try to bullshit me.” It’s half that Kent is his captain and half that Kent is his best friend. It makes for a lethal combination sometimes that Jeff can’t escape. Jeff just does his best to give him a reassuring smile. 

“Yeah man, I’m totally fine. Just trying to think when the last time I went to something fancy like this was.” 

“It was literally like a month ago at the Aces auction fundraiser?” 

“Yeah but that was like… an event. This is a casual party.” 

Kent looks at him like he’s said something crazy, “why would an event where you’re forced into giving speeches and schmoozing be worse than a casual party where you can get as drunk as you want without management yelling at you.” 

Jeff shrugs his shoulders. He’s not sure how to explain it in a way to Kent that doesn’t just make him sound like he’s trying to hard. Or that he wants more than they’ve agreed to. Especially since Kent was the one who said they needed to stop in the first place. 

Kent is watching him, a look on his face that Jeff isn’t quite able to place, “well, you probably won’t really have to talk to anyone here tonight if you don’t want to. There’s enough people around that you can just lean against a wall and no one would bother you.” 

But Jeff sees someone coming towards them right now, “what were you saying about no one bothering us?” 

Kent turns his head to look where Jeff’s eyes are facing and sees Alicia Zimmermann walking towards them. There’s no Bob in sight. Somehow Alicia makes Jeff even more nervous than just Bob himself and he’s not sure why. Jeff already met Kent’s actual mother, how hard could it be to make small talk with someone who was like a second mother to him? But he can feel his heart rate pick up a little and he starts picking with the end of the sleeve of his suit. 

Kent must see it from the corner of his eye, because he’s looking straight ahead at Alicia when he does it, but he grabs the hand that’s fidgeting with his sleeve and laces their fingers together for a moment before letting go. Except he can see Alicia looking right at where their hands had just been linked, he knows she saw it, and now he feels like he wants to melt into the floor. He doesn’t have time for that though, because Alicia is upon them.

When she smiles at them, Jeff is a little disarmed. Of course he knew Alicia was beautiful before he met her, but that’s not what it is. It’s just that Jeff is suddenly overcome with this feeling of calmness almost. Her eyes crinkle at the corners, and her gaze, which is fully on Kent right now, is so warm and familiar that Jeff feels like he’s interrupting on something private. Alicia leans in and pulls Kent to her, who goes easily and wraps his arms around her in a tight hug. When they pull apart, Alicia still has a hand resting gently on his elbow. 

“I see you’ve graced us with your presence.” Alicia laughs. Kent joins in, it must be an old joke. 

“Yeah well I thought there was nothing better to do tonight and I was in the neighborhood so.” 

“You always were a little shit,” and Kent’s smile grows wider so Jeff figures that must also be an inside joke, “you haven’t introduced us yet Kent, I thought you had more manners than that.” 

Kent, still grinning says, “you know what they say about living in Vegas. You become a total fucking heathen!” Alicia scoffs but the playful feeling is still there, “Alicia this is Jeff Troy. Jeff, this is Alicia.” 

Jeff reaches his hand out, “it’s nice to meet you ma’am.” 

Alicia drops Kent’s elbow and reaches in to pull Jeff into a hug as well. The top of her hair tickles his chin a little. He can smell her perfume this close too, it’s flowery, but not so overpowering that he thinks he’s going to sneeze or get a headache from it. When she pulls away, she pats his arm a couple of times and grins at Kent. 

“He’s got a nice hug Kenny, and some strong arms, eh?” 

“Yeah, eh.” Kent mocks, but his face is red, and Jeff knows what Alicia is implying. She’s not totally off base. He appreciates the subtlety though. 

“How long have you two been friends.” She’s smirking at them, and Jeff knows the double meaning behind it. It’s said so casually though, so accepting, that Jeff feels himself smiling. 

“We’ve been teammates since Kent came to the Aces, but we’ve been friends for about a year.” Jeff says. 

Alicia’s face lights up, “a year? That’s a long time. I’m really happy for the two of you. You especially Kenny. I’m happy you’re happy.” 

“Yeah I… Jeff is… he’s the best friend I’ve ever had you know?” Kent’s voice is small, but it’s resolute. The way he’s so sure when saying it makes Jeff’s heart beat a little faster. 

Alicia leans in and kisses Kent’s cheek, “I’m happy for you Kenny, so happy,” when she leans back away she smiles at Jeff too, “this boy deserves a good friend. I hope you continue to be that to him. It was nice meeting you. Kenny, don’t be a stranger honey. Come say hi before you leave okay?” And then she’s walking away, her champagne colored dress flowing behind her. 

The two of them are standing there, silent for a moment before Jeff starts laughing, almost hysterically, “Jesus, I feel like I just got threatened about eighteen times, but it was so subtle I have no idea how.” 

The two of them are watching Alicia as she stops and talks to Nora and Maggie now across the room, “you definitely just got threatened. But it was probably more like thirty times, not eighteen.” 

“Who’s getting threatened?” 

Kent and Jeff jump a little, they hadn’t realized that someone was standing that close to them. Jeff turns his head, and it’s like the parade of Zimmermanns is never going to end. Jack Zimmermann is standing behind them, taller than Jeff, and Jeff has no idea why that’s the first thing that pops into his head. He looks over at Kent to gauge his reaction, but Kent just has a smile on his face. 

“Hey man,” Kent leans in for a half hug, which Jack freely gives before stepping back, “and it was nothing. Your mom was just doing her Godfather impersonation. Trying to scare the new boyfriend and all that.” Kent goes absolutely rigid at that. He chances a look at Jeff, like he’s expecting him to be angry or upset. 

Jeff just reaches his hand out to Jack, whose face still has the surprised expression on it, but he takes it, “it’s nice to meet you. I know we’ve met on the ice a few times, but it’s nice to meet like this too.” 

Jack smiles at him before letting his hand go, “it’s nice to meet you like this too. Kent, you didn’t uh tell me you were bringing someone. Not that you couldn’t! I just meant you didn’t tell me you were bringing someone. Not that I guess you had to do that either I just meant… well I guess I don’t know what I mean, eh?” Jack’s face is red and he’s scratching at the back of his neck nervously. 

Kent just starts laughing, the honking sound he was making at the house earlier when Jeff had called Nora big bird, “Jesus Jack you’re so unfortunate, eh.” 

“God you’re such an asshole.” Jack hip checks Kent a little, who leans into it, trying to bump him back and Jack suddenly has an arm around Kent’s neck, using his other arm to try and mess up his hair. 

“Boys, what have I told you about wrestling with suits on?” 

“Puts in wrinkles that’re a bitch to get out.” Kent says trying to protect his hair from Jack. 

Jeff looks over and Jesus, how many Zimmermanns are there? Logically he knows the answer is three. But illogically he feels like he’s met hundreds of them in the last ten minutes. Bob Zimmermann though looks exactly like Jeff remembers him. He sends a smile Jeff’s way before clapping a hand on both of Jack and Kent’s shoulders. The two stop their jostling and straighten up. 

Jeff scoffs, “I’m sure he didn’t use the word bitch.” 

Bob looks at him, the type of smile on his face that Jeff is sure has charmed thousands if not millions of hockey loving Canadians, “I most certainly did not. Seems like Kenny’s potty mouth hasn’t changed at all.” Bob reaches out his hand to Jeff, “I don’t think we’ve met before.” 

Jeff takes Bob’s hand, “actually we have, once at a charity event I went to with Kent once.” 

Bob looks a little embarrassed by that and for some reason that makes Jeff irrationally happy, knowing that Bad Bob isn’t infallible, “forgetting faces and names has unfortunately started happening more frequently with old age.” 

Jeff isn’t sure why that comment bothers him as much as it does. He isn’t sure why he gets so irrationally angry in this one moment when Kent doesn’t even seem that bothered himself. Kent’s actually standing beside him smiling and having a good time. So Jeff isn’t sure why he says what he says and he suspects he’s going to be sending an ‘I’m sorry I was rude at your Christmas party’ card soon. But… but it just comes out of his mouth before he can stop it. 

“You forgot about Kent pretty easily after you knew him for like three years, so it’s okay if you don’t remember me after one meeting.” 

Bob’s face falters a little, the look is almost ashamed. Jeff freezes because dear God. He honestly prides himself in being the one teammate everyone is comfortable taking places because they know he won’t pull shit like this. Jeff is about to apologize, about to say he has no idea where that came from, maybe try to play it off as a joke, but there’s an arm strong around his by the elbow. He looks over and Kent has murder written on his face and his grip on Jeff’s arm is getting tighter. 

“Excuse me Bob, Jack, I think I need to talk to him alone. I’ll find you before I leave.” 

Jeff lets out a weak, ‘it was nice to meet you again’ before he’s being lead away by Kent. Kent is weaving his way through the throng of party goers and Jeff realizes they’re heading towards one of the side entrances, away from the valet and parking. Once outside, Kent turns on him faster than Jeff can even open his mouth to apologize for the mess he undoubtedly made. 

“What the hell was that?!” 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t thinki-”

“No! You weren’t thinking! Jesus Jeff! You’re like the one guy on the team everyone trusts not to do stupid shit in front of people like this and suddenly today you decide to just do the exact opposite?” 

“Listen it wasn’t my best mome-” 

“You know the weird space I’m in right now with the Zimmermanns! I’m finally getting my friend back, it’s like I’m finally seeing my family again after being separated from them!” 

“I know I didn’t mean to cause-” 

“Cause what? Problems? Because you did! I’m happy again Jeff! Bob and Alicia and Jack? I wouldn’t have survived juniors without them, they were there for me when I needed someone!” 

Jeff isn’t used to being the one who makes things worse in situations like this. He’s normally the one who shuts his mouth and tries to defuse the situation. Who says he’s sorry even when he’s not actually that sorry because he wants the confrontation to end. But this whole damn weekend has got him in a weird mindset. 

“So I guess I was just second best then, huh?” 

“What are you even talking about?” Kent asks him, like it honestly doesn’t occur to him. 

“Me, Kent! When you came to the Aces! They were the ones who left you like that! You hardly talked to anyone, you were standoffish, you never came to team outings! You used to stay away from family skate like it was a physical pain just to be there! We roomed together for how long? I’ve heard the nightmares! They left you!” 

Jeff has to take a breath he’s out of air, “I was there! I was there when they weren’t! I was the one who answered your three am phone calls! I was the one who picked you up from bars when you drank too much and didn’t want anyone else to find out! I was the one who showered with the bathroom door open for months because I knew how freaked out you got when it was closed! I was the one who let you climb into my lap every time you woke up from a bad dream crying!” 

Kent looks genuinely taken aback. Probably because he’s never seen Jeff blow up like this before. Because no one has seen Jeff blow up like this before, “I didn’t mean-” 

“No! Stop interrupting me! I’m not saying that I wish I hadn’t done any of that for you. I do. I did. If I could go back and do all of it again Kent, I would. Without question. I would do it over and over and over again.” His voice is shaking a little bit, and Jeff hates confrontation because he always cries, “and I’m sorry I said that in there. I know I shouldn’t have, and I don’t even… I don’t have any ill will towards the Zimmermanns they’re nice people Kent, I like them.”

Kent looks small, staring down at the snow covered cobble stone of the courtyard their currently standing in, “then what the hell was that all about?” 

“I… I like them Kent. But I…” Jeff takes a deep breath. He might as well just add this to the list of things he isn’t used to doing that he actually does tonight, “I love you though. Seeing you go through all of that I… I reationalized it as being their fault in my mind and I love you. I love you and I hated them for doing that to you, even if it wasn’t actually their fault.” 

Kent looks like Jeff physically struck him and Jeff hates that he made him look like that. Hates that he might have broken their friendship beyond repair, not to mention the implications it had for their working relationship. Kent is silent still after a full minute. Jeff watches as he takes a deep breath, his hands are shaking. 

“I think you should go home.”

And… well that wasn’t what Jeff thought Kent was going to say. They may not have started off this conversation acting like adults, but Jeff had been determined to steer it back in that direction and him leaving the party, leaving New York, didn’t seem that productive. 

“Kent, please-” 

“I just… I really need you to go home.” Kent takes a step back from him, his gaze still lowered towards the ground. 

Jeff turns his head when the sound of the door creaking open alerts them to someone else’s presence. Jack Zimmermann has his head poked out of the door looking at the two of them. His face is pretty neutral, but his gaze keeps going back and forth from Kent to Jeff and it’s obvious he’s noted the big distance between the two of them. Jeff knows they were yelling pretty loudly, he wonders if Zimmermann heard any of it. He doesn’t strike Jeff as an eavesdropper though, so their probably safe there. 

“Everything okay?” He asks, quietly, placatingly. 

Kent sighs, lifts his head to smile at Zimmermann. He still hasn’t looked at Jeff, “yeah, we’re good. Jeff is going to head home.” 

Zimmermann looks uncomfortable, like he’s not sure if he should say good night or thanks for ruining my parent’s Christmas party. In the end he goes with, “It was nice meeting you. Have a safe drive back, eh?” 

Jeff just nods his head and takes a second to look at Kent who is walking back inside, his back turned to him, shoulder hunched. He knows Kent. Knows this is part of his processing. He needs Jeff to be home right now and he can do that pretty easily at least. Maybe they’ll talk more when he gets back. Jeff walks around to the front and grabs Kent’s keys from the valet before heading back to the house to pack his bags, call a taxi, and head home.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's finally done!!  
> Anyways enjoy this chapter full of reconciled friends, shirt ripping and just general sadness.  
> Don't worry it ends well.

Jeff leaves the presents he got for everyone under the Christmas tree in the Parson’s living room. He leaves a note for Kent saying he’s sorry he lost his temper, sorry he embarrassed him in front of people Kent thinks are more important than he is. Okay so he didn’t add that last part, and he might be a little bitter and he knows that’s not what actually happened, but he’ll get over it. Eventually. 

After the note is placed in Kent’s room, on his old banged up wooden desk, and the Christmas presents are placed, Jeff grabs his bag and meets the taxi outside for his ride to the airport. It’s Christmas Eve so the airport is probably going to be an absolute fucking mess, but Jeff would rather get out of New York tonight instead of finding a hotel. The more distance he can put between him and his problems might be the only thing that lets him sleep tonight. 

When the taxi pulls up to the drop off area for departures Jeff makes sure to hand him a tip large enough to make working on Christmas Eve worth it, thanks him, and rushes into the airport as quickly as he can to beat the cold chill that just comes with being in New York in December. Once inside he makes his way through security, mind on complete autopilot the entire time. It isn’t until he sits at his gate waiting for the next four hours before his plane takes off that he realizes how incredibly fucked up this whole situation is. 

It’s Christmas Eve and he managed to get into a fight with the one person he wanted to spend Christmas Eve with the most. Then he remembers that basically just told Kent he was in love with him, that he had been in love with him for a long time and it makes him feel a whole lot worse. The groan he lets out is audible and he leans forward, resting his face in his hands and his elbows on his knees. This has turned into the biggest clusterfuck of his whole life. He honestly doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He doesn’t know how he’s going to practice or even play with Kent when their Christmas break ends. 

When he leans back and rubs his hands over his face, trying to get some of the tension out of his muscles, he notices the people sitting around him are watching him with curiosity. A girl sitting two rows of seats in front of him is trying to subtly take his picture. Jeff’s seen enough examples of people trying to take his picture without looking like it that he knows the signs. He grabs his bag and throws it over his shoulder. He might as well go sit at a gate where no flights are scheduled to take off so he can at least be alone. 

When he finally finds an empty gate (for Frontier, no wonder) and throws himself down in one of the chairs he thinks if he has to wait another four hours for his plane without being able to do something or talk to someone he’s going to lose it and just lay down on the floor and start crying. So instead he tries to do something a little productive and calls Rosie instead. Jeff only has to wait two rings before the young defenseman picks his phone up. 

“Hey! How’s partying it up hockey royalty going?” 

“Uh… well I’m at the airport right now. So. That’s how that’s going.” 

“Oh shit, really? How come you guys had to leave early?” 

“It’s just me. I’m the only one leaving early. Kent’s probably still at the party.” 

Rosie is quiet on the other line for a long time and Jeff would think he hung up if Rosie wasn’t one of the most dedicated people ever when it came to his friends. Plus he can hear him over the phone breathing softly, “did you guys uh… get into a fight?” 

Rosie knows about Kent. The whole team knows about Kent. It’s Jeff who has never told the team that he’s attracted to men. Which is fine because he never felt a pressing need too. But Kent had known and that seemed like enough and… well Jeff eventually told Rosie too and Rosie hadn’t even batted an eye over it. So Jeff feels comfortable enough to let this one out of the bag. 

“We got into a fight because I’m too invested in my relationship with Kent and I said some not so nice things about the Zimmermann’s in front of the Zimmermann’s… okay not even in front of them, I literally said it to Bob Zimmermann’s face and now Kent is mad at me and I’m mad at me and I may have ruined our entire relationship, I don’t know.” 

“I don’t think you’ve ruined your entire relationship, dude. Kent like adores you. You know it, I know it, the entire team knows it.” 

“I don’t think that’s going to help this time.” Jeff says quietly. 

Jeff hears a noise from over the phone, like sheets and blankets rustling and he realizes he must have woken Rosie up, or gotten him just as he was getting ready to sleep and feels worse than he already did. He’s about to tell him not to worry about it, that he’ll just see him later, but Rosie is talking again before he gets the chance. 

“Listen, I didn’t go home this week either because I’m waiting for bye week to go home. So send me your flight information and I’ll come pick you up and we’ll do like a… shit I don’t know. We’ll do whatever we can in Vegas on Christmas.” 

Jeff can’t help but to smile at that, “okay yeah I can do that. Sure you wanna get up at like six am to come get me?” 

“I can’t believe you’re trying to chirp me about waking up early when you’re the one who refuses to get out of bed like ever.” 

“Yeah but I’m not sleeping! I’m just comfortable!” 

“Yeah yeah, whatever. I’ll see you in the morning old man.” Rosie hangs up the phone and for the first time since he and Kent argued he feels like maybe his life isn’t going to fall apart. 

 

***

 

 

Of course that feeling doesn’t stay when he has what can only be described as a tumultuous flight. He was tossing and turning the throughout his first flight and his connection. And when he finally touched down in Vegas he felt like he hadn’t even slept the four collective hours he did get. When he made his way out into the arrivals lobby he saw Rosie sitting in a chair and groaned a little. Jeff was in old sweats, an old and nearly ratty Remparts t-shirt from juniors and there was Rosie wearing jeans that looked like they had been tailored and some weird patterned button up that looked like it should cost 15 dollars but probably cost more than Jeff wanted to think about. 

When Rosie sees him, he takes off the wide sunglasses he was wearing and pushes a hand through his curly auburn hair, “I know you got into a like blow out fight with the love of your life or whatever but dude. You look like shit.” 

Jeff just pulls his duffel further up on his shoulder and snorts, “yeah thanks for that dude. I just want to drink as much caffeine as possible and then maybe tonight drink as much alcohol as possible.” 

“Yeah, the first thing you’re doing is going to my place and taking a nap because you look like you’re coming off a deep playoff run and haven’t showered the entire time.” 

“You are such a dick.” Jeff mutters as he follows Rosie out to his car, “I should have never given you Nora’s phone number.” 

Rosie just smiles at him, “Kent is going to be even more pissed when he finds out that you did. Does he know that I’m the one she’s been texting all weekend. She keeps telling me he’s yelling at her about texting like some old man.” 

“No he has no idea it’s you. Honestly I think he thinks she’s been roasting him on twitter all weekend.” Jeff says as Rosie puts his car into drive and the two of them make their way back to his place. 

 

***

 

It’s six in the morning on Christmas Day and Kent has slept maybe two hours. Maybe. He’s thinking it's more like one and a half. When he had left the Zimmermann’s yesterday night he expected to go home and find Jeff sleeping in his bed, maybe on the couch if Jeff was upset with him which Kent would understand. When Kent had gotten home Jeff hadn’t been on the couch. It gave him a good feeling that Jeff would be upstairs in Kent’s bed that was too small for them. It gave him hope that he would walk up the stairs and crawl under the covers and he and Jeff would snuggle up and they’d talk it out because Kent had been to quick to anger and Jeff had been to resigned to stay. 

Kent had taken the steps nearly two at a time, ignoring his mom and Nora who were trying to talk to him as they entered the house. When he pushed his door open he stood still in the doorway. No one was in his bed. The bed had been made from this morning. Jeff’s suitcase was nowhere to be found. Kent turned and headed back down the stairs. His mom and Nora where in the kitchen, quietly drinking tea at the table, still in their formal wear. Nora was giving him a look that came off as pitying, like she knew what was happening. 

“I… did Jeff text you?” He asked Nora quietly, trying to avoid his mother’s stare. 

Nora shook her head, “No he… he didn’t text me at all. I’m sorry Kent.” 

“That’s… that’s fine. I’ll just uh… text him later. In the morning when he’s probably not asleep. Okay. Well. Goodnight.” He managed to avoid his mother’s questioning look and head back up the stairs. 

He took his phone out of his pocket. It had been at least two hours since Jeff had left the Zimmermann’s party. There hadn’t been a single text or missed call from him since then. Kent had thought when he told Jeff to go home he would and they’d each have time to think about what had happened. They’d both have time to talk about it. But Jeff had obviously figured it wasn’t worth it. That Kent, once again wasn’t worth it. 

Which is how Kent found himself, now at eight in the morning on Christmas at the Zimmermann’s cabin that had once belonged to Alicia’s family. Jack and his parents had always done Christmas at the crack of dawn, so by the time Kent got there, they were already through with gift giving and family breakfast like they had when they were teenagers in the Q. When Bob opened the door he just gave Kent a small pat on the shoulder and dragged him in against his side while pulling him inside. 

Alicia was sitting at the kitchen bar sifting through some stacks of papers and sipping on coffee, still in a fuzzy robe and pajamas. Jack was nowhere in sight, probably off taking a run by the lake if Kent had to guess. When Alicia looked up and saw him she smiled and beckoned him closer and patted the seat beside her so he would sit.

“You’re up early on Christmas!” She said with a kiss to his cheek. Kent was momentarily pleased and heart warmed that she had remembered his family didn’t start their festivities until Christmas night. 

“Yeah I uh… couldn’t sleep. Knew you all would be done with family stuff so I thought I’d stop by and say Joyeux Noel and all that.” 

Bob set a cup of coffee in front of him, just the way he had learned to like it in the Q when he hadn’t wanted anything more bitter than dark chocolate. He held it in his hands and took a deep sniff before taking a sip. Bob had always made the best coffee. He sat on the other side of the bar from Alicia and Kent and watched Kent drinking his coffee like he was trying to figure out what to say to him, or trying to think of how he worded what he definitely already knew he wanted to say to him. Bob always had chosen his words wisely. Kent probably should have paid more attention to how to do that when he was younger. 

“Just say it Bob.” Kent sighed. 

“That young man was your boyfriend, right? I know we pretty much said as much but…” 

Kent wanted to cry a little at that. Jeff wasn’t his boyfriend. He didn’t even know if Jeff was his friend right now, “Uh no. He wasn’t… he isn’t.” 

Alicia looked confused, “Oh no, Kenny did you two breakup last night?” 

Another thing Kent had always liked about the Zimmermann’s, they never parsed their words. Just said exactly what it was they meant to say, “no we didn’t breakup we um… we weren’t really together.” More looks of confusion, “I had a boyfriend… David. We had been dating for like a year and then he broke up with me. Basically said I wanted too much. Mom though… she had gotten really excited about me bringing home someone for once and I just… I couldn’t make her sad again so I talked Jeff into pretending to be my boyfriend for the weekend. He was just doing it as a friend.” 

Alicia looked straight ahead at the wall, and got the look on her face that Kent had always classified as the one she sent he and Jack before or immediately after they had done or said something remarkably dumb. Bob’s eyebrows were knitted downwards so much that it looked like they would touch the bridge of his nose any second. He remembered now again, that the Zimmermann’s all didn’t have poker faces either. None of them did. It was like an entire family trait or something. 

Kent rolled his eyes, “just say it, whatever it is you two are thinking I know you’re dying too.” 

“That’s a lot for a friend to do for another friend Kenny,” Bob said, “especially with the two of you being on the same team. If someone had seen the two of you pretending for your family’s sake… well the media response would have been terrible.” 

“He seemed awful fond of you darling. He wouldn’t stop touching you the entire night.” Alicia added carefully. 

“Yeah well… I ruined it anyways. He went back to Vegas.” 

“Who went back to Vegas?” Kent turned his head to see Jack coming into the kitchen, running pants and shoes, hair a little wet from sweat. Kent hated that he still knew him so well. 

Jack paused a little in the doorway, taking inventory of Alicia and Bob’s facial expressions and Kent’s overall disposition. Kent could see the words Bob was trying to mouth over his head to Jack and the non-verbal conversation Alicia was trying to have with facial expressions. The frozen deer in headlights look on Jack’s face said he wasn’t understanding exactly what the problem was. 

“Jack, darling.” Alicia said, “why don’t you and Kent take a walk around the lake. I don’t think he’s seen the backside of the property that borders the lake.” Lie, Kent had seen almost every part of this property because he and Jack had sneaked away to every part of the property to have a moment to themselves. 

“Uh… sure?” Kent would scoff at Jack’s alarmed face but it was so endearing he couldn’t find the energy. 

“You two are terrible.” Kent muttered at Bob and Alicia as he scooted his stool out from the counter top, “come on Zimms, let’s go take an extra cool down lap, huh?” 

Jack just nodded and followed him out the back door of the cabin. When they had gotten far enough away he nudged Kent with his elbow, “so what were you talking about with my parents?” 

“I was letting your mother know that I’m running away with your dad to never return again.” Kent muttered, kicking a stone over with his foot as they walked closer to the lake. 

Jack just scoffed, “I don’t think you’re his type.” 

“Hah! A joke from Jack Zimmermann. Haven’t heard one of those in a while.” 

Jack smiled at him, bumping into his side again, “It’s not my fault you can’t understand my jokes Kenny.” 

“Chirp, chirp, chirp.” Kent says and suddenly he’s in a sour mood again. Not because of Jack, not because of the light chirping, “I don’t think I understand much of anything anymore.” 

Jack rubs the back of his neck, a nervous tick he’s had since they were teenagers and Kent is suddenly glad to see that there are still some things that are constant even when it feels like nothing else is happening the right way. He’s quiet, and Kent can tell he’s trying to think of something to say. That part is new. When he and Jack used to get into it, whether it was friendly or not he would say the first thing that came to mind. Kent did too. He thinks it might be where a lot of their problems started. Neither one of them ever thought about what they should say. Kent is glad they’ve moved past that. 

“Is this about Troy? I assume that’s who went back to Vegas?” Jack walks onto the wooden dock at the edge of the property and the lake and Kent follows him. It’s cold as shit outside, but the two of them stand at the end of the dock, staring out onto the frozen lake anyways. 

“Yeah he… he went back to Vegas. Couldn’t bear to look at me or whatever. I don’t know.” 

“Did he say that?” Jack asked quietly, hands in the pockets of his coat, looking out on the lake like Kent was. 

“Did he say what?” 

“Did he say he didn’t want to look at you again?” 

“No he… He sort of said the opposite actually. Maybe.” 

Jack rolls his eyes, “what exactly was it he said, if you don’t mind me asking.” 

Kent pushed snow around on the dock with his foot. His shoes were starting to get a little wet, he definitely didn’t dress for standing out near a frozen lake in 20 degree weather, “he uh… he said he loved me.” 

Jack startles a little at that, hopefully not because he’s surprised anyone could say that to Kent, “I’m going to be honest Kenny… I don’t understand what the problem is?” 

“I… someone I like told me they loved me and I freaked out. Who does that Jack? Who just… shuts down when someone says they love you? That’s supposed to be a good thing? And when he said it the only thing I could think of was ‘please take it back.’” 

Jack had the pained expression on his face that he always got when something emotionally complicated was happening and he had to be a part of it. But Kent thinks now it’s just that he can’t believe how much of an idiot Kent is. Jack is like… emotionally mature as an adult. Kent kind of can’t believe it. Kent is also sort of really proud of how Jack moved on into adult life, but he figures them talking about Kent’s emotional constipation is enough for one conversation. 

“I… is this a juniors thing?” 

“What?” Kent whips his head up so fast he thinks he’s going to give himself whiplash. 

“I mean, I just… you can stop me if I’m going to far or being presumptuous but… Kenny this sounds like maybe you’re afraid of being involved with a teammate again?” 

Kent deflects instead of answering the question, “wouldn’t you be?” 

“I mean sure. I was.” Jack says without any hesitation, which sort of hurts but Kent can’t blame him, “we were children and everything was… it was shitty back then. Nothing that happened was 100% either of our faults but… I think when you find the right person, it doesn’t matter the circumstances. You owe it to yourself to try and be happy, to make yourself happy with the person you love.” 

Kent’s just blinking up at him, “I can’t believe you just like… therapist’d me. Oh my god Jack.Seriously I’m DM’ing Bittle on twitter and telling him that you therapist’d me.” 

“I’m going to shove you into this lake.” 

“You can’t, it’s literally frozen.” 

“You’re evading the question. Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to be happy? No matter the circumstances?” When Kent doesn’t answer, when he keeps looking out over the frozen expanse of lake Jack just sighs, “think about it okay?” 

“Yeah… yeah Jack I’ll think about it.” 

Jack smiles at him, something Kent had grown to miss nearly as much as their friendship. Kent is about to say something about how he’s glad they can talk again. About how he’s glad he has his best friend back. About how he’s glad that Jack is healthy and happy and in love with his life and with someone else. But then Jack pushes him off the dock and Kent falters because he forgets the lake is frozen and he thinks he’s about to go plunging into a lake that’s cold as shit and instead trips over himself and lands on solid ice. 

Jack is smirking from where Kent is laying on his back, snow all over him, “C’mon, I think I can talk maman into making us her peppermint schnapps hot chocolate.” Jack bends over and offers Kent his hand, which he takes, and hauls him up back onto the dock. 

Kent can’t help that he’s in a better mood now so he yells, “Last one there is a rotten egg!” like a child and takes off running before he’s even finished talking, Jack running after him yelling the whole time. 

 

***

 

 

Jeff wakes up finally after what feels like a 20 hour nap in Rosie’s guest bedroom. It was the kind of nap that leaves you more wondering where the hell you are rather than rested and refreshed. He groans and rolls over, rubbing his hands over his face trying to rub the sleep out of it. He lets his face stay smushed into the plush pillow for another few moments before turning over the other way. He’s met with a chirp and a face full of fluff. 

He forgot Rosie babysat Kit from time to time. The large ball of gray fluff was staring at him from where she rested on the other pillow, tail swishing gently back and forth. Jeff reached out and gently maneuvered his arms underneath her middle and pulled her over to him as he sat up, letting her rest against his chest. It was was only seconds before she started purring. Jeff buried his face in her neck fur for a moment before pulling back. 

“I don’t think your daddy is ever going to talk to me again, princess.” He murmured to her lowly. Kit, because she was a cat, didn’t say anything, but she kept rubbing her face over Jeff’s chest and he figured that had to count for something. 

When he looked up from her, he saw Rosie in the doorway, his phone held up in perfect picture position. When he lowered the phone from his face he was grinning at Jeff. He swiped a couple of times and then locked and pocketed the phone. Jeff scratched Kit a couple more times underneath the chin before he set her gently next to him on the bed with a few mews of protest and then swung his legs over and out of the bed. 

“Feel better after your beauty rest?” Rosie asked. 

“More like I feel like I got hit by a truck.” 

Rosie watched him as he walked around the room, pulling a shirt and pants from his duffel bag and throwing them on quickly. It sort of weirded Jeff out a little. Rosie had always been one of those people that could tell exactly what you were thinking. He always knew what kind of mood people were in. He’d helped the team avoid coach on bad days numerous times before. He said he’s always just been super empathetic towards people, but Jeff thinks that he’s secretly a telepath and he won’t admit it to anyone. 

“I know you’re thinking something that you really want to say to me out loud so you might as well go and get it out of your system.” Jeff sighed. 

“I think you should call Kent.” 

Jeff pauses as he makes his way out of the room, on his way to raid Rosie’s kitchen, “why? Did he say something to you?” 

“No. Not to me. But Nora said he’s been mopey all morning. That he seemed upset when they came home last night and you weren’t there. She said she can really tell that he loves you. That and the fact that she said he’s been staring at your instagram all morning and going on and on about how pretty your eyes are or something. I mean I don’t get it because you’re kind of like a caveman but-” Rosie laughs when Jeff shoves at him a little. 

“Should you be telling me all of this?” 

“Jeff I’m going to level with you. I love you and Kent both dearly. I mean you two are like the idiot older brothers I never got to have. But this isn’t some stupid romcom where the two main characters have a misunderstanding and come together later in spite of it. Neither Nora or I think this a ‘it’s their business to tell each other how they feel.’ That’s just dumb. It’s a stupid trope. You know how many romantic movies would have ended happier and like sooner if their friends had just told them what they know? I mean it’s absolutely ridiculous, you’re just going to watch your friends suffer in silence even though you could fix it? Like what kind of asshole friends-” 

Jeff put his hand up, “Rosie, thank you for that but please stop. I… if Kent wants to talk to me he knows what my phone number is. He can DM me on twitter, he can send me an email. If he wants to talk to me he can.” 

Rosie is silent for a moment before he starts following Jeff into the kitchen, “did you not just hear a single thing I said? You’re literally going to play into this stupid romcom thing? Jeffrey, seriously. Please don’t be so stupid. If Kent wants to talk to you he can? You know who we’re talking about right? Like the king of blame? He’s never going to pick up his phone to call you because he’s probably sitting on his couch right now assuming that you hate him and he’s respecting your boundaries or something. Jeff. Jeff, I’m serious.” 

“Rosie!” Jeff nearly startles himself with how loud he yells, “I appreciate the concern and your weird knowledge of romcom pitfalls, but this isn't’ a romcom. This is real life. And Kent has to make just as much of an effort to talk to me as I do with him.” 

“But you’re like… not making an effort at all. Look dude. All I’m saying is the two of you have been making goo goo eyes at each other since I’ve been here. It’d be really fucking stupid to ruin it over an argument you had that like… wasn’t that big of a deal anyways.”  
“Wasn’t that big of a deal?” Jeff asks dumbfounded. He knows he told Rosie all about it on the way home. There’s no way it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

“Yeah dude. So what you got mad for two seconds because like these people were sort of dicks to him for a while? You don’t think Kent has gotten upset about stupid shit before? You remember when he threw his skate across the ice at practice and almost hit Tally in the head? Or the time he like dropped gloves with Z because he was in a weird mood all day and then got his ass handed to him?” 

Jeff remembers both of those days very well. The first one because he hadn’t even been aiming for their back-up goalie’s head but it had almost ricochet off of his mask anyways. The second because Jeff nearly had to go rescue Kent from his terrible decisions. Jeff grabs a seat from the kitchen island and sits in it, letting his face hit down on the marbled counter and he groans. This is honestly the worst thing he’s ever gotten himself into, and he’s let Kent talk him into some pretty stupid stuff if he’s being honest. 

“Listen,” Rosie continues, “I’m not saying that you have to do anything you don’t want to do. But I am saying that if you want to talk to him, if you want to work it out, I think it’s pretty stupid to like wait for him to talk to you first. Why are you going to let that ruin what you want? If you want it, then do it, get it, whatever.” 

“Do you ever listen to yourself talk sometimes? Honestly what are you saying to Nora that has her smiling at her phone all the time because you are the least smooth person I know.” 

Rosie’s face seems to get as red as his hair, “I’m the most eloquent bastard you’ll ever meet. Take my advice or leave it, it’s your life dude. But for what it’s worth I think you should call him. Now should we watch Pacific Rim or The Land Before Time?” 

 

***

 

“I don’t know why you don’t just text him.” Nora says as she and Kent get through the last ten minutes of their trip to the airport, “I mean first of all it’s Christmas day and the airport is going to be a fucking nightmare. But like.. This is a lot of effort when you could just call him and say you’re sorry for being a huge idiot and you’ll see him tomorrow when your original planned flight takes off?” 

“Because a phone call doesn’t seem like… personal enough.” 

“Kent the two of you have been dancing around each other for I don’t know how long. I highly doubt Jeff is suddenly going to drop you now because you called him instead of taking a plane like 2,500 miles to see him in person instead.” 

Kent feels sullen about it for some reason, and then he feels embarrassed because he’s been thinking about the reason him seeing Jeff in person, the reason him talking to Jeff face to face is so important to him, “Jeff deserves more than a phone call. I want… I want to do something. To prove that I mean what I’m going to say to him. And I know taking a plane isn’t that much of a statement when I could afford hundreds of tickets but…” 

Nora looks at him quickly in her periphery, eyes back on the road half a second later, “you’re honestly the most romantic person I know even when you try to deny it. Kent I know you don’t think you know this but… Jeff honestly loves you already, okay? You two had a dumb fight. You’re going to go to Vegas, see him, apologize like a big boy, and the two of you will be back to making kissy faces at each other, all the better for having done it.” 

“You call me gross and sentimental.” Kent smiles at his sister but when he they park he’s the first one over to the driver’s side of the car and when Nora is out, he’s hugging her tightly. 

“That’s because you are. Get off of me.” Nora elbows him away from her gently, “you’ve got a plane to catch.” 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m going.” Kent presses a quick kiss on her forehead before grabbing his bag again and heading into the airport. 

He was going to fly home, find Jeff, and make the most genuine apology he could, and then he was going to be the most romantic asshole Jeff had ever seen. 

 

***

 

Jeff doesn’t know if it’s in between the Land Before Time and Pacific Rim or between Pacific Rim and the Aristocats where he’s suddenly hit with a feeling of needing to do something. Rosie is probably right. He wants to talk to Kent. He wants to make up with Kent. So he’s going to call him. Jeff fishes his phone out of his pocket, a little sad when he sees there are no missed notifications, calls or texts, from Kent. He can see Rosie watching him from the corner of his eye, but he doesn’t care. This was his advice anyways. 

Jeff clicks on Kent’s name in his phone, and waits for the phone to start ringing. It gets through half a ring before going straight to voicemail. He hears Kent’s ridiculous voicemail start up before he ends the call. He doesn’t want to leave a message. He isn’t sure what he would even say. And if he ended up leaving a voicemail that was embarrassing, well he’d probably never live it down. He throws the phone on the couch next to him with a huff and Rosie reaches over with his foot and shoves at his shoulder a little bit. 

“You okay over there?” 

“He sent me straight to voicemail.” 

Rosie makes a noncommittal noise and then throws Jeff the weighted blanket that was thrown over the back of the couch. Jeff takes it gladly and wraps himself up in it. It helps only a little. The two of them are sitting in silence, watching the part of Aristocats where Edgar abandons Duchess and the kittens when Rosie finally speaks up. 

“What do you think that means?” 

“What do I think what means?” Jeff asks, engrossed in the movie. It’s one of Kent’s favorites, he’s seen it at least twenty times in the last couple of years. 

“That his phone went to voicemail. Like do you think he’s ignoring you?” 

Jeff lifts his head just enough to give Rosie a look that clearly states how annoyed he is, “of course I think he’s ignoring me. Why else would it go straight to voicemail?” 

“I don’t know dude, maybe he has his phone turned off.” 

Kent Parson, they both know, has never turned his phone off a day in his life. It’s not that he’s glued to it 24/7. Actually it's quite the opposite. People would never believe it, but Kent has this thing about being “in the moment” and “remembering his time with the people he cares about.” So when they’re out with the team or he’s hanging with them one on one he doesn’t have his phone out unless it’s to take a picture. But he also has this weird thing about being reachable all the time. He doesn’t like it when he thinks he may miss a phone call, like he’s just waiting for someone to call him with important news or something. No one has been able to scratch the surface of that particular behavior, but it has to be about something. The point is, Kent never has his phone off. Ever. 

So Jeff sends Rosie a look that clearly relays this information. Rosie just rolls his eyes, not even looking at Jeff and starts typing something out on his phone. Probably laughing it up with Nora about how bad Jeff and Kent are at being adults but people a handful of years younger than them somehow have it together. Rosie locks his phone and puts it down on the coffee table in front of them. 

“I’m going to go get take out because its been hours since we’ve eaten real food. Please I am begging you to take a shower and like change into clothes that make you feel like a human being before I get back.” 

Jeff doesn’t want to take a shower. He wants to wallow in the sweats that have holes at the bottoms where he’s stepped on them too much. He wants to be sad wrapped up in the t-shirt he’s had since he was 16 years old. Screw Rosie. He’s going to stay in his goblin clothes as long as he wants. It’s already almost 6pm anyways, he’s going to go curl up in Rosie’s insanely comfortable guest bed in like two hours and scroll through Kent’s Instagram to see if he’s deleted all the pictures of the two of them. He won’t, Jeff knows, because PR would have a cow. When two of the faces of your franchise are also noticeably “best friends” especially on social media well... if Kent decided to delete picture of them people would start 8 million rumors about tension within the team and trades and anyways Kent knows how stupid shit like that is. 

So maybe he’ll just go through his Instagram and cry over all the pictures of them before Jeff went and ruined everything and they were still friends. Jeff buries himself further underneath the blanket Rosie threw at him and switches off the Aristocats. They can finish it when Rosie gets back. He feels like putting something else on instead. Something that might make him feel better. He’s going through the choices on Netflix and ends up switching on an episode of Criminal Minds. He’s just going to take a cat nap while Rosie is gone, whatever. 

He’s under the blanket, doing the kind of drifting that happens when you got nothing else to do and you’re comfortable. Bored sleeping. He’s about to drift off for real he thinks, when he hears the sound of the door opening and Rosie coming back in with whatever take out he went to go get. There’s the rustling of plastic bags, hopefully filled with the food from the curry place across town Jeff likes, and the sounds of feet against the floor. But there’s also the sounds of voices. As in plural. As in more than one. Jeff isn’t sure who else on the team Rosie would have brought over. Probably Epps. Jeff doesn’t care if Epps sees him sad and miserable though so he doesn’t bother moving from out under the blanket. 

“Aw jesus, Jeff. I told you to take a shower and change.” If Rosie says one more judgmental thing today Jeff might throw him over the couch. 

“If I want to wallow in my goblin clothes, I’ll wallow in my goblin clothes.” Jeff shouts sticking a hand out from underneath the blanket and flipping Rosie the bird. 

“Lemme guess, those old gray Nike sweatpants and your ugly ass Remparts t-shirt?” 

And that… that’s not Rosie’s voice. That’s not Epps’ voice either. That’s a distinctly Kent Parson sounding voice. Jeff throws the blanket off over just his head so he can see. Sure enough Kent is standing in the middle of the living room. He looks… he looks good too. Wearing those tailored jeans that can fit over his ass without being baggy. He’s wearing that dark blue cardigan that belongs to the part of his wardrobe his assistant likes to call his “grown up clothes.” 

“You’re in New York?” Jeff can hear how scratchy his voice is, he thinks it makes him sound like he’s going to cry but really he just hasn’t had any liquids for the last 3 hours. 

“I’m in Rosie’s living room in Las Vegas?” Kent says back, an equal amount of confusion like he isn’t sure he actually knows it. 

“What are you doing here?” 

“Before I tell you can you stand up so I can see if I’m right and you’re wearing that god awful Remparts t-shirt?” 

“We can’t all have played for teams with awesome shark boat hybrid logos Kent. Answer the question.” 

Kent shifts his weight from foot to foot and Jeff realizes that he looks nervous standing there in Rosie’s living room. Kent clears his throat and looks at Rosie who just huffs and throws his hands up, “fine. I’ll just like leave my own apartment or whatever. Kent I’m going to your place and I’m drinking all your expensive wine. I’ll see you idiots later.” Rosie waves at them quickly and then Jeff can hear the door of his apartment open and close again. 

“Why are you here Kent?” Jeff asks again. And he’s trying to sound steady and calm but he thinks he’s just sounding scared and nervous. 

“I uh… I wanted to see you. And I wanted to apologize. For what I said. At the party.” 

“What exactly did you say?” 

Kent’s face does something weird like he’s trying to figure out if Jeff is mocking him or if he’s genuinely wondering what part of what Kent said he’s apologizing for. Eventually, after a moment, his face settles. 

“I should have never implied that you weren’t there for me. That you didn’t help me those first few years I was in Vegas. Or you know, the way you help me even now.” Kent takes a deep breath, like he’s stealing himself for something and Jeff figures he should at least sit up for this. 

“I took a lot of what you did for me back then and now for granted. You always helped me and I just assumed that you would always be there, helping me. I didn’t realize that you had ever felt like I didn’t appreciate that and that’s not on you. That’s my fault. I should have been a better friend and shown you or told you how much I appreciated you.” 

Jeff opens his mouth to say something but Kent holds his hand up, “no let me finish please. When you told me that you uh… that you liked me at the party-” 

“That I loved you.” Jeff reminds him gently. 

Kent’s face flares and he gets the most embarrassed look on his face, “yeah that you love me. When you told me that you loved me… romantically. I just… I was taken by surprise. It wasn’t that I was mad at you for saying it. I wasn’t upset by it Jeff. You have to know that. You telling me that you love me, that you care about me. That… that would never make me mad. I am so thankful that I have you… that I have someone who cares about me as much as you do.” 

Kent takes a deep breath and Jeff’s heart plummets, this is where the ‘but’ comes in. The ‘you’re an amazing friend, but’ or ‘I’m so thankful to have you care about me this much but.’ He isn’t ready to hear it. There’s a ringing in his ears that he suddenly can’t get to go away, and his vision won’t focus so Kent looks a little blurry on the edges. This is literally the worst thing that could be happening right now. And it shouldn’t be. Kent is telling him that they can still be friends, that he still cares about him, that he’s happy Jeff cares this much. But Jesus it feels like Jeff drove out to the Vegas desert and threw himself on a cactus. Like all the little needles are tearing into his heart centimeters at a time. 

“But,” and there it is, “I would be the biggest asshole if I didn’t let you know that I-” could never feel the same way, won’t lead him on, can’t reciprocate, Jeff is thinking of about 18 other words that are about to come out of Kent’s mouth, “feel just as strongly about you-” 

“Wait, what?” 

Kent pauses mid sentence, his mouth hanging open, “what do you mean what?” 

“I just… I’m sorry I thought you were coming over here to like break up with me. Like best friend break up with me.” 

“Why… why would I do that?” 

“I don’t know! Why else does someone else fly thousands of miles away to talk to someone!?” 

“Because I’m trying to confess my undying love to you or… or whatever! I don’t know I’ve never done this before! I was always more of a fumbled hand-jobs leading to not talking about our feelings kind of guy. This is new to me!” 

And now Jeff has suddenly gone from absolute heart break to feeling an overwhelming amount of endearment for Kent. Kent who is standing in front of him confessing that he loves Jeff too, that he flew thousands of miles just so he could stand in front of Jeff in Rosie’s living room and tell him that in person. Jeff swings his feet off the couch, and is standing in an instant, the blanket falling away from his shoulders. 

Kent’s eyes are looking him up and down and he says softly, “I knew you were wearing that fucking sh-” 

But Jeff is in his space, one hand on Kent’s neck right under his jaw, his thumb pressing up against where he can feel Kent’s pulse racing. His other hand slides up the side of Kent’s face, landing in his hair where he tugs at the roots, keeping his hand clenched around his hair tight enough that they’re not falling through his fingers, lose enough that Kent could move his head if he wanted to. Kent’s hands have come up to his waist. One is clutching his shirt tightly, the other sliding around to to rest on his lower back. The two of them stand their, clutching at each other and not moving. Jeff can feel the heat coming off of Kent’s body they’re so close. He moves his head down and their foreheads bump, Jeff’s nose nudging along the bridge of Kent’s. Kent lets out a shaky sigh before tilting his chin and Jeff has never been so thankful to be able to press his lips against someone else’s in his entire life. 

Kent’s hands have traveled up Jeff’s back and are pulling at his shirt incessantly, like he’s trying to get as close to Jeff as possible and the shirt is the only thing keeping them apart. Jeff is keeping his hands steady where they are. His mouth is pressing harder against Kent’s and the sounds escaping from him every time he moves his lips against Jeff’s is driving him crazy. He suddenly can’t get his hands on the other parts of Kent he hasn’t touched fast enough. Kent pushes up on the balls of his feet so he can press against Jeff harder, and the whine that he lets out nearly short circuits Jeff’s brain. Kent’s biting against his mouth, little nips meant to get Jeff to open his mouth. 

“Wait, Kent, wait.” Jeff presses a few more closed mouthed kisses against Kent’s mouth, his hand in his hair pulls a little so Kent draws his head back to look Jeff in the eye. 

“What? I… is this inappropriate? Jesus I’m sorry, I just like jumped you.” 

“No. No you’re fine.” Jeff presses in and kisses the spots right underneath the corner of Kent’s eyes, “I just… I was not feeling the best and I was upset and I uh like haven’t brushed my teeth in a day and a half so my mouth probably tastes terrible.” 

Kent looks at him sweetly, from under his eyelashes, and it’s driving Jeff up the wall. Kent is hardly ever sweet on him, even when they were doing their friends with benefits thing at the beginning, “That’s okay. Rosie was right anyways. You do need a shower.” 

Kent apparently is continuing to never be sweet on him, “you are such an ass oh my god.” 

“Well my ass has a great idea. You go brush your teeth and then meet me in Rosie’s ridiculous shower and I’ll help you get cleaned up.” 

Jeff nearly trips over his ratty sweats trying to get to the bathroom. 

 

*** 

 

When Jack calls, Kent almost doesn’t pick it up. But Jeff is sleeping beside him and Kent is lying awake playing with the wisps of brown hair that are curling over his ears. He picks it up after the second ring, hoping he got it in time before the sound of the ringer wakes Jeff up. He isn’t moving at all though so Kent thinks he’s probably safe. 

“I heard you flew back out to Vegas a day early.” Jack says in lieu of a greeting, “I also saw on Instagram that your teammate, that kid Bloom, had been exiled from his apartment.” 

“Exiled is a strong word. He totally could have stayed.” 

“Don’t you both have two apartments between the two of you you could be using right now?” 

Kent chuckles softly, “where would the fun in that be?” 

Jack huffs, “I take it everything worked out for the best then?” 

“Oh yeah. Everything is going great. Better than great. Jeff has this old ugly Quebec Remparts tshirt and I finally got to literally rip it off of him today and-” 

“Thanks Kenny! I’ll talk to you later, optional skate that isn’t optional.” Kent hears the click of the other line going dead and laughs. 

Jeff stirs next to him and wraps his arm around Kent’s waist, pulling him in closer. He’s nuzzling along the curve of Kent’s jaw slowly when he asks, “who was that?” 

“Just Jack, checking up on us.” Kent whispers, carding a hand through Jeff’s hair. 

“Oh yeah? What’d he want?” 

“Just wanted to say he was happy for us. That he was glad I practically ripped your Remparts shirt in half trying to fuck you.” 

Jeff snorts, “he did not say that.” 

“No he didn’t, but I could tell that’s what he wanted to say.” Kent smirks at Jeff and lord help him but Jeff didn’t think he’d ever be able to describe a smirk as loving. 

Instead of retorting, he wraps his other arm around Kent’s back and pulls him impossibly closer. Kent’s face is now smushed in the curve of Jeff’s neck and shoulder. He breathes deep and settles into Jeff’s embrace. 

“I’d let you rip all my juniors t-shirts. I love you that much.” Jeff tells him.

“That’s real love.” Kent says quietly. 

And Jeff doesn’t have to respond because he knows. And he knows Kent knows it too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just quick notes.
> 
> The Juniors team I have Jeff as playing for are the Quebec Remparts who are apart of the QMJHL, the same league that Rimouski Oceanic (aka the team that most people think Kent and Jack would have been on) is on. I didn't know this before I started writing this chapter, but apparently Rimouski and Quebec have quite a rivalry so I guess I got lucky in picking the Remparts (even though I did it because one of my favorite players played for the Remparts)
> 
> Also, I'm so glad you all have seemed to enjoy this story. What was supposed to be like 2 pages at most is now over 45 :') 
> 
> Come find me on tumblr at wjpoindexters if you wanna chat!

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me over on tumblr at wjpoindexters!  
> I almost always have prompts open, or if not my ask box is always open anyways, come say hi :)


End file.
